Finally I get to post about my favorite finished object EVER. I knit this afghan / lap blanket for my aunt, who is a wonderful and creative person. She has knitted for years, but now she spends more of her creative time making beautiful jewelry, plates and ornaments from fused glass. She has always inspired me, and she gave me a set of knitting needles and crochet hooks, and started me knitting.

This was both a terribly frustrating and boring, and a wonderfully satisfying project. It took me many hours, and when I got to the 576 stitch section, it took 22 minutes for EACH ROUND!!! So it truly felt like it would never be finished. But by the time I got to the lace, it was addictive, because I knew I would soon be done. The knit-on border took a terribly long time as well, but when it was done and blocked, it became such a lovely piece of work I almost couldn’t give it away!!

I’ve started a pi shawl, that I intend to eventually be blanket-sized. I’ve wanted to start a GIGANTIC project like this for some time, and I finally cast on. The yarn is a recycled 100% merino which is absolutely lovely; it’s about DK weight or so; and I’m knitting with US#6 needles. I was mostly inspired by the pi shawl blanket that Brooklyn Tweed made; once I saw it, it stuck in my mind and eventually I had to make one! The pattern is by Elizabeth Zimmerman.

On the rawer fiber front, I’ve been up to my elbows in dye, and the results are these 3 colorways of polwarth roving, all dried out and ready to spin. And on the spindle are some initial tests of how the colors might spin up if I draft them together. I am especially happy with the reds/pinks/mauves/browns/blacks I achieved in one of the rovings. The others didn’t really turn out as planned at all; the BRIGHT orange was supposed to be mostly deep reds with a bit of orange, and the intense blue/green/yellow roving was to be a fairly consistent turquoise… well that didn’t happen. But the orange is very exciting, and the blue-greens will likely make a beautiful fabric once spun.

Search for:

About Me:

My name is Emily, and I knit, sew, spin, and design all sorts of joyful creations. I started my knitting design journey in Vancouver, Canada, but I am currently located in Edinburgh, Scotland. I can be reached at ecwessel [at] gmail [dot] com, and I'm EmilyWessel on ravelry.com - drop me a line!